Looking Back
by Uxie22
Summary: A collection of stories and ideas that never made it into Moonlight Magician.
1. Nanako

Nanako started at the sound of the voice and looked around frantically. Nobody had been able to see her since she exited her body, which was now lying surrounded by a curious crowd. A blonde girl was standing in front of it, surprisingly uncaring of the corpse behind her, ordering people to get back. Nanako tried to avoid looking at the pool of blood inching toward the girl's shoes.

She didn't have to look very far before she found the speaker. A girl almost identical to the one now calling the police on her mobile stood before her, an eyebrow raised in interrogation. She didn't look surprised to see her- in fact, she looked almost amused.

**Cat got your tongue?,** she said.

And then there was that voice. It was weird, abnormal- it had harmonics that reverberated in Nanako's skull, somehow sounding a little like two people speaking at once. Nanako gaped at her.

**I'd say to shut your mouth before a fly goes in,** drawled the girl, **but I guess there's not really much chance of that happening anymore.**

Nanako closed her mouth and swallowed. Precisely what she was swallowing was a mystery, as she was sure ghosts didn't have spit. Ghost spit, maybe?

"You… can see me?", she croaked. Finding out that there was life (of a sort) after death had come as a bit of a shock to her.

The girl gave her a look that, even in her shell-shocked state, still rankled. It suggested that she was an idiot, an imbecile, and not worthy of her time. She rolled her eyes as she said, **Well, I'm speaking to you, answering you, and meeting your eyes, so **_**that**_** question was really unnecessary. You got any other stupid things to say, or are you going to tell me who killed you?**

Nanako blinked at her. "… Killed me?"

The speaker placed both hands onto her face and then slowly dragged the skin down, the act of a girl reaching the end of her patience. **I- look, my name's Pandora. What's yours?**

"Nanako", Nanako mumbled. She was trying not to scream, having caught sight of a set of jagged teeth behind the girl's lips when she spoke. Her eyes were red too, with no pupils and no iris. _Just what the hell was she talking to?_

**Well. My friend over there-** Pandora pointed toward the blonde girl from before, who looked like she was giving orders to a group of police officers- **is an awesome detective, but even awesome detectives need help. If you would be so kind to tell me who killed you, maybe I can drop her some hints to speed it up a little.**

"Wha-"

**She promised me ice cream when we get to the park, you see, and quite frankly your death is getting in the way of my meal.**

"I wasn't killed!", Nanako yelled. "I killed myself!"

Pandora gaped at her. **You killed yourself? You **_**killed**_** yourself? You idiot! Why would you go and do something stupid like that?**

Nanako flinched, the girl's sudden anger like a blast going off. Something in her head screamed at her to run, its voice growing louder when she realized Pandora's feet weren't quite touching the ground.

"I just-"

**You can do so many things when you have a body! You can eat ice cream and drink milkshake and hug people and talk to other people and read comics and stuff! Why would you throw something so cool away? Look at that thing!** Pandora threw an arm out toward Nanako's bloody body, which was being carefully removed from the scene. **That cool thing was all yours and you could do so many things with it and you **_**hurled it off a building?**_

"My life was shit, okay?", Nanako yelled. "I lost my job-"

**There are other jobs.**

"- I broke up with my boyfriend over another girl-"

**There are other boys.**

"- _and_ I lost my apartment."

**That's still not reason enough to **_**kill yourself.**_

Nanako's shoulders slumped. About halfway down the building she had begun to regret her decision, a feeling that seemed to be solidifying in her chest. To her vague surprise, she didn't feel at all out of breath after screaming at Pandora, but then again ghosts probably didn't need to breathe. Or eat. Or sleep.

_Oh God._

"What happens now?", she whispered.

**Well, Shinichi will deduce that you killed yourself, and then we're gonna go to the park and get some ice cream-**

"I meant _me_! What's going to happen to _me_?"

**Oh. I don't know. You haven't seen any bright lights to walk into, by any chance? Any dead relatives calling for you? A thin guy in a black robe with a scythe?**

"No…"

**Then I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea**, Pandora said cheerfully, her temper tantrum now a mere memory. **I guess you'll just have to work it out for yourself.** She glanced back at her blonde companion, who was gesturing to the top of the roof where Nanako had jump from. The girl was shaking her head, a sad look on her face as she talked to an overweight, moustachioed man in a brown suit. Nanako recognised her boy- her _ex_-boyfriend, standing sorrowfully beside the pool of blood left behind, a police officer patting him comfortingly on the back. A girl stood beside him, her arm around his waist.

She felt the old jealousy well up.

Pandora grinned at the look on her face, glancing from her to the couple, who were now embracing. **Of course, even when dead there's a bunch of stuff to do until you figure it out**, she added. The blonde girl was looking impatient now and seemed to be staring in their direction.

**Welp, I'd better go**, said Pandora, floating toward the girl. **Ice cream awaits! Good luck on figuring your afterlife out.**

"Wait!", said Nanako, her attention snapping back to her. "You're like me, right? So how come you don't know what to do?"

Pandora shook her head, pale blonde hair swirling slowly as if in water. **Trust me**, she assured her, **we're **_**nothing**_** alike.**

With that, she turned and re-joined the blonde girl.

Nanako stared at them both for a few seconds, then turned and ran after her ex-boyfriend and her usurper. She hoped that ghosts could move things around, and maybe even pinch and bite.

She'd make them regret what they had made her do.

"What was that about?", Shinichi asked Pandora as they began to walk. The bloody sidewalk and the police's anger at any curious civilians had pretty much cleared the street of people, so they could talk openly for now. "You were yelling at some blurry floaty thing on the street. What _was_ that thing?"

**Oh, it was just Nanako**, Pandora said airily.

Shinichi almost tripped. "Nanako? The girl whose death I was just investigating?!"

**Yeah. She was a real bummer too, until she saw her ex-boyfriend with his new girl. I think she followed them.**

Shinichi half turned to glance back down the street, biting her lip. "Ghosts can't commit murder, right?"

**Murder? No. That would take too much energy. But they can do little things like move light things around, poke and push people, appear behind people in a mirror… all that jazz.**

"Oh." Shinichi gave one last look down the street before she continued walking. "That's okay then."

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><p>AN

Well, here's the first story of Looking Back, with more to follow soon. The purpose of this is to get out all of the discarded ideas that had potential, but never quite made it into Moonlight Magician. They gathered dust in the stacks of notebooks tucked away in a drawer in my room...until now.  
>Let me know what you all think ^.^<p> 


	2. Toichi

Toichi lightly padded across the marble floor, his footsteps silent. The only noise was the sound of his white-clad legs brushing together, the swish of his mantle, the sound of fabric rustling against itself. He found what he was looking for in a matter of seconds, and his grin shone as brightly as the lock picks he slid from his pocket. For a few seconds, there was only the clink of metal against metal, a noise that ended at the sound of a quiet click.

The lid of the display case opened.

Toichi's breath caught in his throat as he stared at the jewel nestling on its cushion. It was huge, a clear diamond cut so that it caught what little light there was and threw it back in rainbow rays. And deep in the middle, only a little larger than a marble, hung a red orb.

The miracle gem, the jewel of immortality, Pandora.

Toichi grinned and picked it up, ripping it free from the wires attached to its underside. The lights snapped on in the room, a siren beginning to wail. There were distant, startled shouts.

"Uh oh", Toichi said.

**What the hell?**

Toichi almost shrieked, but years of practise came to his aid and stopped him just in time. All that came out was the tiniest squeak that managed to slip through his clenched teeth.

**Really? That's the answer I get? 'Eek'?**

Toichi stared around wildly, trying to find the speaker. He was vaguely aware that the distant footsteps were getting alarmingly close.

**You might want to run. These people aren't the kind to ask questions before shooting, if you get my drift?**

Toichi decided to take the disembodied voice's advice and ran for the exit, a tiny window set high up one wall. The door burst open as he jumped, a bullet chipping a chunk off of the sill as he pulled himself through.  
>He was on the roof now, and he could hear people being ordered up. He took off, sprinting as fast as he could to the other side of the roof where there was enough space for him to unfold his hang glider. He would glide out of sight, hopefully before the armed men made it to the roof, and then change into civilian clothing to blend into the crowd.<p>

**Are you stealing me?**

Toichi gritted his teeth and kept running. Where was that voice coming from? Had someone slipped a walkie talkie or something onto him somehow or something?

**Or something.**

Wait a minute…

Toichi darted a quick glance down at the jewel in his fist. Red light glowed from between his gloved fingers in the moonlight, shards of light that seemed too invasive for a normal jewel. They left funny shadows at the corner of his eyes and seemed to be physically trying to burrow through his corneas.

"Stealing _you?",_ he panted, then felt a bit of an idiot for talking to an inanimate object. There was a distant crash as the door to the roof burst open.

**Yes, _me_. Who else?,** came the voice that, now Toichi thought about it, seemed to be coming from the depths of his own head rather than from outside of it.

**Um, you've been running at the edge of the roof for a while now, and unless humans have somehow developed the ability to fly-**

"I have a _plan"_, he hissed. The roof edge was drawing closer now, speeding toward him-

**Well, unless your plan is to splash into the ground, you might want to change your course.**

Just a metre away-

**Oi! MOVE!**

Toichi stepped off the roof into mid-air. There was a moment of pure, terrifying weightlessness before he dropped.

A push of a button, the tug of the harness, and the hang glider opened up like the wings of an angel. Toichi rolled in the air before he gained control, steering frantically to fly away as swiftly as possible. There was a whistle as a hail of bullets shot past him, one lucky shot catching him in the arm. For the second time that night, he had to fight against screaming.

Toichi knew that with his white glider framed against the dark sky, he was pretty much a sitting duck for anyone with a gun. Good thing he had thought to make a black hang glider for situations like this.

**Oh God... I'd throw up if I could.**

Ah…

Toichi brought the jewel up to his face, steering the glider with one hand. He began to circle downwards to an unobstructed patch of ground where he could land and hopefully find a crowd to melt into. He would have to move fast to avoid being caught, but maybe they wouldn't be able to tell where he landed.

"What the hell is going on?", he hissed. "What _are_ you?"

**I'm a talking jewel and I can see right up your nostril. Mind moving me away a little?**

Toichi landed with a thud, staggering a little to stay upright. "Jewels can't talk!" The clank of the glider folding shut was swallowed up by the yells from the rooftop he had just vacated.

There was a bark of laughter that made his head ache. **Yeeeaaah. I'm _totally_ not talking to you right now. You're just going crazy.**

"I'm not going crazy!"

**It's one or the other.**

"Just tell me what's going on!" Toichi grabbed his arm with one hand, trying to staunch the blood. Ooh, this wasn't good.

**Sure. You run, I talk.**

"Run? But I've lost-"

**Snake isn't one to give up easily.**

Toichi went cold. "Snake?" He turned to look back at the roof, which was now alarmingly empty.

**Like I said, you run, I'll explain.**

Toichi shuffled in place for a second before turning and sprinting. Scratch the crowd idea, Snake wasn't one to hold back when civilians were involved. Maybe he could get up high again… run along the rooftops and head to a safe place.

Where was a safe place?

There was the sound of a breath, as though the jewel had somehow inhaled. It began, **Have you ever heard of the legend of the Pandora jewel…?**

* * *

><p>AN

I know that Toichi is known for being all suave and gentlemanly, but I suspect those traits would desert him when being addressed by a talking jewel.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Send this struggling fanfiction author a review :)


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